Tutto su Stephen King should be available tomorrow. My first work to be translated into Italian, to the best of my knowledge.
I finished Djibouti by Elmore Leonard this weekend. I enjoyed the book overall, though there was one decision he made that I wasn’t so sure about. A lot of the story is told by a documentary filmmaker and her right-hand man as they’re going through all their footage, rehashing a lot of stuff that they already know. “As you know, Jim…” dialog, although in this case it’s “Remember when so-and-so…” The concept of writing about the documentary process is interesting because it allows Leonard to discuss what makes a good story, but I would rather have seen some of the events Dara and Xavier discuss than read them talking about them. Full review to come.
Now I’m reading Bad Boy, the latest Inspector Banks novel by Peter Robinson. It’s amazing how much fuss the discovery of a loaded hand gun can cause in the UK. They have to call out the armed response unit and storm the house, whereas over here no one would have flinched. Inspector Banks is on vacation in San Francisco, so we get to see an English-born Canadian writer depict a British subject in America.
I went to see The Town yesterday. Early afternoon matinée, five bucks. Can’t beat that with a stick. I was going to get some popcorn but one teenager managed to get the machine to throw scalding hot kernels all over the place, to the fascination of the remaining teenagers running the place, so the line ground to a halt. Made it through the movie without popcorn, so their ineptitude saved me more than the movie admission! The movie was well done. It’s an adaptation of Chuck Hogan’s The Prince of Thieves, which I reviewed shortly after the book came out. The film is loyal to the book, though it dispenses with or minimizes certain things. The relationship between the FBI agent (John Hamm) and the bank manager is gone, as is Ben Affleck’s sports car obsession. It’s good to see Hamm in a contemporary plot, with a bit of swagger in his step. I laughed when he handed off the note he found on his car near the end. “It’s for you.” The car chase scenes were harrowing, as was the gun play toward the end. My biggest complaint was that I couldn’t make out about half of what Jeremy Renner (Hurt Locker) said. He mumbled worse than Brando. Rebecca Hall was excellent as the bank manager.
Did anyone change places during this week’s Amazing Race? Seems to me that they all came in the same way they started. The volleyball team were sore losers when they got to Elimination Station. We didn’t deserve to be eliminated, because we’re better than everyone else, they said. Behind their backs, the others got a good laugh out of that. We’ll, obviously not, or else you wouldn’t be here.
OK, raise your hand if you figured out in advance that Angel was going to blunder into something completely different than what he expected on Dexter.
I have to say that those were the two grossest cadavers I think I’ve ever seen on television. Bugs all over the place. Ewww. Didn’t bother Deb much, though. And what was the deal with the tattoo artist’s secret handshake with Deb? She did it twice, twisting their hands sideways. Some cultural clue I’m not up on? And I had to laugh at Masuka’s leopard print thong underwear.
It was a surprise to see Lumen at large. I thought the season was going to be about Dexter trying to manage a captive. Julia Stiles is so good as the traumatized victim. I was sure she was going to lose it completely during her pat-down at the airport, but it was even more effective that she didn’t freak out, was just constantly on the verge of breaking down. Of course she wasn’t going to catch that flight. Dexter’s about to embark on the Hero’s Journey. Lumen issued the call to action, and he, of course, resisted. Inevitably he will accept.
The funniest bit of the episode, though, was Harrison’s adventures with the other children. “Not even a year old and you’re already destroying evidence and leaving the scene of the crime.” The Irish nanny pooh-poohed his fears. “My little brother used to bite people Now he’s a vegetarian, works for Greenpeace.” Come on, doesn’t Dexter ever trim the kid’s fingernails?
Today’s subject line quote comes from Leon Russell.
A little more TV catchup. Thankfully Fringe wasn’t on last night or I’d be swamped. CSI took on hoarders last night in a way that cable television doesn’t. That was a woman with a serious obsession, wanting even the dead pen that her case worker had loaned her daughter momentarily to fill out a form. My wife’s uncle was something of a hoarder. We cleaned out his apartment after he died and I found an air conditioning unit in one room, though it took us a couple of days to get the point where it was visible. There were stacks of boxes that you had to navigate, something like the tubs on that episode. The place was fairly clean, though. We found no dead bodies.
I’ve become a stand-up guy. My kangaroo arrived last night. The UPS guy wrestled it to the door. It was in a massive box, and weighed about 40 lbs. Solid construction, and the wooden platform matches my work desk perfectly. I took it into the office, but didn’t get around to setting it up until mid-afternoon. It became an instant attraction. People were coming from all over the building to see it.
Instead of watching NCIS, I’m tuned in to the Elton John / Leon Russell live concert on fuse.tv. Today is the launch day for their new duet album, The Union, produced by T-Bone Burnett and featuring such guest performers as Neil Young and Brian Wilson. Russell was big back in the late 60s and 70s and was one of Elton John’s strongest influences. While listening to some of Russell’s classics a couple of years ago, he decided to reach out to the performer, who had been at one of EJ’s Troubadour concerts, the ones that launched him in America. They toured briefly back then, but had little contact in the interim. EJ came up with the idea of doing a duet to bring Russell back into the spotlight, and the two of them wrote songs, along with Bernie Taupin. Russell reminds me of a cross between Santa Claus, Willie Nelson and the husband of one of my coworkers. He growls and mumbles more than he sings these days, but he can still tickle the ivories. I listened to The Union a few times during my round trip to San Antonio on Sunday and I like it quite a bit. It has elements that remind me of some of EJ’s albums, from Tumbleweed Connection to Too Low for Zero to The Road to El Dorado to The Big Picture, but it also has this gospel bluesy country feel that’s pretty cool. One of the amazing things about this story is that Russell had brain surgery just before they went into the studio. Can you imagine? Bracketed by solo performances, this fuse concert features the two men playing the entire album (along with band and brass and backing singers).
Rubicon ended with a whimper, not a bang. And I really thought we’d hear that bang, or something like one. We still have no indication whether or not the series will be renewed for a second season, so there are some open questions that are worth pondering. First: Andy. Tom Rhumor left a posthumous video message for Katherine, telling her to go to a specific apartment, and it turns out to be Andy’s. Was it always Andy’s, or did Tom’s secret get intercepted after he died, in which case did Andy take over the place from someone else (presumably someone who didn’t fare well)? Her behavior at Central Park was odd, but it could have meant one of two things. Despite her protestations, she may have really wanted to get Katherine to the park because that was a good place for the killer to strike. On the other hand, she may have truly not anticipated the murder, but ducked out because she didn’t want to see Will. Remains to be seen (I hope). Second: Why didn’t Will pick up the DVD—or did he even need it by that point? Finally, what of Truxton Spangler? In his final confrontation with Will, I fully expected one of two things: either for him to take a header off the building or vanish back inside the building, long pause, gunshot. The very bang I was anticipating. Of course, he’s a spoiled brat who doesn’t listen to others even when they’ve voted him off the tribe. (Apparently the season finale went through at least three major revisions, each with a different fate for Spangler.) I do hope the series gets picked up. It’s a quirky show, but I like it. I busted a gut when Tanya’s quitting turned out to be a non-sequitur to Grant’s announcement that he’d been promoted. Also, since I was expecting Truxton to take the four-leafed clover solution, I wondered if Grant’s promotion would get squashed.
My Storytellers Unplugged essay 
I received my copy of the hardbound omnibus of American Vampire last night. I’ve only read the first installment until now because the local shop stopped carrying the series for a while. I still find that I have a hard time reading graphic novels. I tend to gloss over the images. I know they’re all the rage, and I know a bunch of people who are involved in them at present, and I’d probably sign up to do one if anyone were crazy enough to ask, but I still don’t quite get it.
The 
Join editor Nancy Kilpatrick and authors from 
I was going to start Elmore Leonard’s new novel, 